Fortnite fans broke into prop cars to get llamas hidden by Epic Games

Epic Games, makers of hit battle royale game Fortnite, threw an impressive party during last week’s big E3 gaming convention. The developers didn’t just want to throw a rager: they wanted to celebrate the fiction of the game in a real-world setting. The plan was to immerse fans in the candy-coated world of Fortnite at an event held at the LA Memorial Coliseum, where they could drink a version of in-game restorative item“Slurp Juice” or chill in a firepit named after the game’s “cozy campfire.”Attendees were also given a “battle pass” that they could fill up with stickers for completing tasks like taking a picture or talking with costumed characters — including five rare stickers that would grant party-goers special prizes like hand-made pickaxes.

Photo: Epic Games

What many people didn’t know, however, was that Epic Games also hid eight 3D-printed llama statues across the party grounds. Llamas, as Fortnite players know, are supply drops that can be looted for weapons, gear, and materials. If you see a llama in-game, you’ll head straight for it, because it holds goodies. But if you see a llama statue at a party? Well, most people would think it was just part of the decor. That wasn’t the case here, though.

The llamas were hidden just about everywhere, from the top of buildings at the venue to the inside of locked cars, which were located inside the party and modeled after the cop cars littered around the game. While the vehicles didn’t belong to real law enforcement, anyone who wanted the llama within had to essentially break into a car. A representative at Epic Games told The Verge that the studio expected people to take all the llamas, but were surprised at the “ingenuity” required to get into the cars specifically.

The type of cop cars that players broke into. Photo: Epic Games

“Security was instructed to let people take them if they could get them,” said Epic Games director of video production Jeremy Hoffmann on Twitter. “People picked locks on cars, distracted staff [and] climbed on top of containers.” Players were willing to do this despite not knowing what — if anything — was hiding inside the llamas. People wanted them that bad.

Many fans on social media who attended the party responded with astonishment, because they didn’t know they were allowed to take the llamas in the first place.

WHAT

WHAT THEA LSDJAKSJDLASD

I HAD ONE IN MY HANDS, AND THEN @MrsDrLupo TOLD ME TO NOT TAKE IT BECAUSE SOMEONE WOULD GET MAD

Others, meanwhile, are gleefully sharing images of the llamas they pilfered from the party:

Because the llamas are a limited item, some fans are already discussing the possibility of selling them for money. “I’m interested in how much people are willing to pay for him,” one llama owner said on Twitter. Judging by the prices on other limited E3 items on eBay, chances are good that some of these llamas will fetch hundreds of dollars.